


Private Concerts

by ShippedMyPants



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Hunk and Pidge are tired of the pining, Keith Plays the Piano, Keith and Shiro are step siblings, Lance is his new neighbor, M/M, Piano, based off of that one picture prompt, klance, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 13:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11060418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippedMyPants/pseuds/ShippedMyPants
Summary: Keith is a professional pianist and likes to play in the early hours of the morning when he can't sleep. When he hears a knock on his door, he figures its the first of many noise complaints at his new apartment.





	Private Concerts

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been writing this forever? Its based off of that one piano request image. You know the one. I can't find the link of it for the life of me, but if I come across it again I'll add it here. Anyway, watch these sweet boys bond over music.

Keith has been playing the piano since he was five. Back then it was sticky fingers plunking out the notes to 'Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star' and recitals that made parents cringe. As he got older, like any young teen would do, Keith dragged his feet to lessons; insisting that he was sick of playing the piano and that it was stupid, that he never liked it anyway. His step-mother got him an old upright piano for his first apartment. Rolling his eyes, he gave his step-mom a hug and thanked her; privately thinking it was a waste and that he would never find time to play.  

But that was then, and now he wished he could truly thank her; if she hadn't gotten him that old piano (which he had kept for ten years between two more apartments) he would never have discovered the relaxing serenity playing brought to his mind.  

Unlocking the lobby door, Keith checked his phone for a call from the delivery company. His new piano should be arriving within the hour; his old beloved one having been ruined during the move to Portland.  

Keith watched as a man about his age jogged up to the door and started digging around in his pockets, presumably for his key. After a while, realizing this guy probably lost his keys or something, Keith decided to take pity and opened the door for him.  

"It's open." 

"Oh," the brunette looked up, confused, "Why?" 

"I'm having something delivered to my apartment and the movers should be here soon," Keith explained, curious as to why this, frankly atrociously attractive, man was still standing on the stoop of the apartment entrance. "Care to come in?" Then, thinking twice, "You do live here don't you?"  

"Yeah, uh, yeah! Sorry, I just couldn't find my keys; I think I left them over at my friend's house." As if on cue, a bulky Hawaiian guy with a headband bounded up to the apartment entrance. 

"Lance, you left your keys... Oh, I guess you got in anyway."  

The cute Spanish looking one, Lance, grabbed the keys and patted his friend on the shoulder, "Thanks Hunk, I would have needed them to get into my place anyway."  

Hunk smiled, "No problem dude." Hunk finally noticed Keith awkwardly watching the friendly exchange, "Hey, thanks for letting my absent-minded friend in, he's kind of a mess all the time," he reached out to shake Keith's hand, "I'm Hunk." 

"I am not!" Lance huffed indignantly.  

Keith laughed, "I'm Keith, nice to meet you."  

"Oh, you're the new tenant in the building aren't you?"  

"Yes, I'm just waiting for my last piece of furniture to be delivered. My old one was ruined in the move."  

"That sucks dude," Lance commiserated, "I'm Lance, apartment 208."  

"Oh, I'm one unit above you, 308."  

"The last guy in there was obnoxious; shaking the ceiling every night, if you catch my drift." Lance grimaced.  

Keith frowned at that, he hated inconsiderate neighbors. "Sorry that sucks. But don't worry, you'll only hear a crash if Red knocks over a lamp," he reassured with a smile. Lance smiled back. They just kept smiling at each other.  

Hunk could see his friend was definitely smitten with his new neighbor and let them have a moment before clearing his throat and saying, "Sooo, I'm gonna go home. See you Friday night?" 

Snapping out of his smiley trance Lance stuttered, "Y-yeah, man. Sounds good." 

"Nice to meet you Keith," and with a knowing look at Lance, Hunk was out the door and out of sight. 

"Well I better get going," Lance rubbed the back of his neck, showing off his arms nicely, Keith noted. "See you around, Keith."  

Keith's mind lingered on blue eyes as he waited for his piano to arrive. He sighed,  _I'm too gay for this shit._  

 

******* 

 

After their meeting in the lobby, the two men kept running into each other. They seemed to keep a similar schedule: leave for work by 8:00 (Lance to the Kids Community Center, Keith to the music store), home by 4:30, get the mail, maybe run into each other as they left in the evening (Keith to a performance, Lance to meet up with Hunk or Pidge). They made friendly small talk, asked about each other's day, and would usually stare a bit too long.  

Keith's new piano was the centerpiece of his living room, the rest of his furniture accommodating it rather than the other way around. His cat, Red, had always scratched at the legs of the old piano, a habit she wasn't going to give up easily. So the new legs of the piano were wrapped in cat carpet; she had him trained so well. She would curl up in his lap when he played, which was most nights, and then would get up to stretch and claw the piano when it was time for her dinner.  

Three weeks into living at his new apartment, Keith thought all was going well in his life. He got along nicely with his neighbors and had settled into his life in Portland, but even when things are good, sleep can evade the best of us. At his old place he would play and it wasn't a problem because both of his neighbors were elderly and slept without their hearing aids. Here, he would have to re-evaluate. Well, what better way then to play at 3am?  

He sat, breathed, and began the familiar strains of Claire de Lune; usually a crowd pleaser and something that could be recognized by anyone he woke by playing. He made it through without a knock at the door. He began another, Marianelli's _Dawn_ , a personal favorite known by some as the opening song to Pride and Prejudice. Then another Marianelli ( _Leaving_ _Ne_ _therfield_ _._ Keith really liked that movie, okay?).  

Finally he was starting to get tired, but after his final piece there came the dreaded knock at the door. Sighing, he got up to appease the angry neighbor. But there was no one there. Looking out into the hall he didn't see anyone; Keith couldn't decide if this was better or worse than actually having someone there asking him to keep it down.  

As he was about to close the door he saw a fluttering in the corner of his eye; taped to the door was a note in a messy scrawl that read, "If I may make a request: Liebestraum No. 3 in A flat. You play beautifully." Keith took one last look into the hall, making sure there was no one, then took the note inside, his heart light in his chest and a smile on his face. Never before had he received a late night request besides a noise complaint.  

He set the note on his music stand, then walked over to the balcony and opened the double doors. He played the song, and when the final note trailed out, soft applause came from outside then the click of another set of balcony doors closing.  

 

****** 

 

"Dude, I'm telling you, this guy is an amazing pianist." 

"I know Lance, you've told me literally every single time you've seen me this week," Hunk couldn't help but chuckle at his head-over-heels best friend, Pidge next to him rolling their eyes.  

Lance took an overly ambitious bite of his burger, "You know," Hunk hedged while Lance couldn't talk, "You could always just ask him out instead of leaving weird creeper notes on his door."  

It took a few hearty slaps on the back from Pidge to keep Lance from choking on his food.  

"I can't do that! He's... " Lance struggled for words, "He's just always busy. I mean, I see him leave at least three nights a week all dressed up. Probably for a date." 

"How dressed up?" Pidge asked.  

"Like a full suit; even a tux a few times." 

Hunk laughed, "And you say he's a great pianist?" 

"Yeah dude, how many times do I have to say it?" 

"Lance, you dork, that's what concert pianist wear to work. He probably plays for an orchestra or private events." Pidge pointed out.  

"Shit. You're right."  

"So are you going to ask him out?" Hunk prodded.  

Lance sighed, "I'll think about it." 

  

******* 

Tonight was the night Keith was going to meet the person who kept leaving notes on his door. They had left three so far, each time he was playing in the early hours of the morning. He had a Plan™. Start playing at 2am, a little earlier than usual, but it gave him more time to confront the individual and hopefully talk before they both went to bed. The rest of the plan was basically wait for the knock on his door and then SPRINT as soon as he heard it to catch the note-writer before they could make it to the stairs. He moved the furniture so there was a clear path to the door but the room still looked nice in case he did invite the person in.  

He was ready.  

 

******* 

Tonight was the night Lance was going to talk to Keith. He had a bouquet of daylilies that smelled nice and their bright red-orange color was striking. They were sitting in a vase on his coffee table as he waited for the music to start. It was a little early; 1:30am, but he couldn't help but be anxious, he was finally going to _actually talk to_ the beautiful guy that could play the piano like an angel. Lance didn't know what he was going to say yet, but he was pretty good at making that up on the spot.  

After thirty more minutes of pacing, he heard the first strains of music come from outside his open balcony. The sound that usually calmed and relaxed him now sent his heart into overdrive. Why didn't he think out a more concrete plan of what to say? What was he going to do, just throw the flowers at Keith and tell him how the piano music helped him sleep? How it reminded him of his oldest sister and made him less homesick? No! That was way to forward for just meeting the guy. Not that it was the first time he'd met him. I mean, he'd passed Keith in the mailroom and they shared an elevator multiple times. They were friendly neighbors by this point surely.  

Deep breath.  

Okay. 

Keith was starting on his second song.  

Lance usually waited until after the third to make a request, but anymore waiting was likely to kill him.  

Lance gathered up the flowers and went up the elevator to the third floor. He waited outside the door to apartment 308 until he heard the final notes of the song fade out. Then he raised his fist and knocked.  

 

******** 

_Knock Knock Knock_  

Keith nearly jumped at the sound of someone at his door, he hadn't expected the other person for at least one more song; but this was fine, anymore waiting would have killed him. 

Keith jumped up and ran to the door, flinging it open and almost barreling into the man on the other side. He hadn't expected the knocker to still be standing there... and holding flowers? He pulled himself back before he ran into who he now recognized to be Lance, his downstairs neighbor. 

They both stood there, staring with wide eyes. Neither remembered their plan of what to do when they got to this point; Lance hadn't expected to almost be run over, and Keith hadn't expected to come face to face with the man making requests.  

After what felt like ages, Keith finally broke the silence. "Uh, hey." 

"Hi," Lance could only respond, his brain still catching up. 

"Are you the one who's been leaving requests taped to my door?" 

That got Lance back on track, "Yeah! Uh, yeah, that was me. I, um, brought you flowers? That’s what the internet said you're supposed to give someone after a concert anyway." Lance held out the lilies hoping Keith would take them before his hands started shaking too badly and he dropped them. 

Keith took the flowers, a soft smile on his face. "Thanks Lance, that's really sweet." He looked up and saw Lance fidgeting and edging toward the elevator now that his delivery had been made. That wouldn’t do. "Would you like to come in? I was going to play some more, and the music probably sounds better from in here than from downstairs, unless you need to get going or something," Keith cut off his rambling before he made too big of a fool of himself. Luckily Lance was smiling, so he must not have overstepped too much. 

"Yeah, that would be great." Keith stepped back from the door, holding it open for his guest, "Thanks." 

Keith walked over to his piano and set the flowers on top so he could see them while he played. He gestured at the couch for Lance to sit on, "Do you want anything to drink?" 

"No, I'm good thanks." Lance might have thrown up if there was anything in his stomach. 

"Alright." Keith sat down at his piano, hands hovering over the keys. "Um, any requests?" 

Lance smiled, he had prepared for this one. "You were playing songs from Pride and Prejudice a few nights ago right? I love that movie, all of the music is beautiful."  

Keith beamed and his hands settled on the keys, "Yeah, I love that one too. Whenever I got tired of lessons as a kid my step-mom would put on that movie knowing I would want to keep trying to play the songs." Keith's smile softened remembering Mrs. Shirogane. "Tashi would get so annoyed because I would keep playing Dawn over and over again." Keith started on the mentioned song, letting the bright notes bounce around the room. 

"Tashi?" Lance asked. 

"Takashi," Keith answered, "He's my step-brother, everyone calls him Shiro though. He actually lives in town and works up at OHSU."  

"That's awesome," Lance commented. "My siblings are all over, I'm the only one in the NorthWest though." 

"Oh yeah? Where are you from originally?"  

"Cuba. I was born there, but we moved to Florida pretty soon after." Lance chuckled, "I moved the farthest away for college, my brothers stayed on the East coast and my sister only went as far as Kansas."  

"You stayed in town after graduating then?" Keith asked as he transitioned into another, slower song.  

"Yeah dude, would you ever leave this town?" Lance asked skeptically. 

"Maybe for Seattle." 

Lance snorted a laugh. "Exactly. Traffic isn't as bad here yet so I'm staying put for the time being."  

"Traffic's nothing when you just take the MAX." Keith offered. 

"Fair." 

They lapsed into silence, both focusing on the music coming from the piano. When the song ended, Keith paused, catching Lance stifling a yawn. 

"It's getting pretty late..." Keith gave Lance an opening to call it a night. 

"Oh yeah, I didn’t mean to keep you up," 

"No!" Keith cut off that train of thought, "I was actually hoping to catch you tonight, I wanted to meet the mystery man behind the late night requests." 

"Ooh, I'm a man of mystery now?" Lance wiggled his eyebrows in a poor attempt at seduction. 

Keith rolled his eyes, "I was just glad it wasn't another noise complaint." 

"You got complaints?!"  

"Not at my last apartment, but the one before. I like to play when I have trouble sleeping, but my neighbors thought I was 'disturbing the peace.'" And bless Keith's heart, he did the air quotes and everything. Lance's heart melted.  

"Well those idiots didn't know anything did they? Your music brings me peace all the time." 

"Yeah?"  

Lance looked down at his fidgeting hands and he could feel the red creeping up his neck and blushing his cheeks, "Yeah... It, um, kinda reminds me of my oldest sister. She used to play; not as good as you, but the piano still reminds me of her."  

"Oh." Keith didn't know what to say to that, and they fell into a slightly awkward silence. 

Lance could only take so much; it was almost 4am and his awkward confession left him longing for his bed. He stood up suddenly, and from the way Keith jumped in his seat, it took the other man by surprise. "So I should probably head out, I have work tomorrow and stuff." He rubbed the back of his neck and shuffled toward the door. 

Keith hurried to stop him before he got to the door, "Wait!" 

Lance froze, his hand on the door knob. 

"Uh." Keith's brain froze. 

"Keith?" 

"Thank you for the flowers." It was the first thing his mind could latch onto, but it quickly got him back on track. "You know, we could hang out at a normal time of day too, if you wanted." He suggested. 

"Three AM isn't normal?" Lance joked.  

Keith huffed a laugh, "Normal is relative and time's an illusion, but that’s when I start to get tired and I'd like to have a little more time with you. If, if that's okay?" He finished hesitantly. 

"That sounds perfect." Lance's smile was like a burst of sunshine in the room, warming Keith from head to toe, giving him the courage to do what he did next.  

He leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Lance's cheek, causing the other man to go scarlet.  

"Can I pick you up at 6?" Keith asked. 

Lance just stared for a moment before his brain decided to kick back in. "YEAH. Uh, I mean, sure. That sounds great. Good plan." His face was still red as he backed into the frame of the open door.  

"Then I'll see you tomorrow." 

"See you tomorrow." 

"Good night Lance." Keith smiled and closed the door. 

"Sweet dreams." Lance stared at the closed door for a full minute before the reality of what happened sunk in.  

He had a date. 

With Keith. 

Tomorrow night. 

He had to tell Hunk! Wait. What was he going to wear? Lance wandered down the stairs and back into his own apartment, wondering at his good luck; smile never leaving his face. 

**Author's Note:**

> So this actually started off as a Destiel fic... but then I watched Voltron and it consumed my life, so I switched the names and some descriptors, finished the story, and called it a day.


End file.
